lunes, 24 de septiembre de 2012

UK and norway-based firm haptic architects, in collaboration with norwegian firms narud stokke wiig architects & plannersand griff arkitektur have won the open international competition for the new airbaltic terminal at riga international airport, latvia.their proposal was selected from 125 entries, hailing from 70 countries.

the competition called for 'design concepts, both architectural and functional that best captured the aspirationsand brand identity of airbaltic.' the first phase will accommodate 7-8 million passengers per annum, while the new terminalwill cater 14 million passengers.

the hexagonal roof pattern relates to the country's history of geometrical patternwork

winning design features a roof for the airbaltic terminal that is influenced by the gently undulating forms of the latvian landscape,with peaks and troughs responding to the structure's internal configuration and passenger flows. the internal roof soffitis composed of a hexagonal timber grid shell, with infill of timber or clear and diffused glass used to control the daylightingand acoustics of the space, while providing dramatic variation across the entirety of the roofscape. the composition of light, shade,depth and color is derived from the forest canopies found throughout latvia, while the hexagonal pattern relates to the country'shistory of geometrical patternwork.

martes, 18 de septiembre de 2012

While the UK government is contemplating building an airport east of London, a handful of architects have already put forth their visions for an airport within the city limits, looking to the River Thames as the site of the new runways. Architecture firm Gensler imagines a future London airport set atop a series of floating platforms, allowing planes to land on top of the river without filling it with earth.

Gensler's vision for London Britannia Airport is an infrastructure project with minimal environmental impact. Four five-kilometer runways would be tethered to the river bed and floating atop the water in the Thames Estuary. The runways could be removed from the river for maintenance and additional runways could be added as needed. Similarly, the airport terminals would be constructed off-site in a shipyard and then floated in upon completion. Underwater tunnels would connect passengers to the central London and the European High Speed Rail Networks.

Full sizeGensler envisions London Britannia not as an addition to Heathrow Airport, but as its replacement. It also proposes Heathrow into an eco city, one that could house 300,000 residents. London Britannia would itself be a fairly green building, providing much of its own power through marine turbines.

But for now at least, this is just a project on paper as the government considers placing its next runways outside of London.